[dviant]

cheers 709! And to further make this thread about RI and not HD Powerbooks....

Thinking about MS's crap-ass font and image enlarging solution (as opposed to a real RI GUI) reveals another issue for RI GUIs. The remaining problem even with a nicely implemented vector-based RI OS X Tiger is still web graphics. Without scaling those 72dpi images (like Windows does yuck), page layouts are going to get funky. Images on web pages will be teeny on those uber-high pixel depth monitors and and the fonts would be all out of proportion comparatively.

Seems like the solution would be to allow web browsers to use higher dpi images and do scaling (down if you can help it). Afaik currently web browsers don't respect "size" settings (picas, inches, cm) on our 72 dpi web graphics, displaying them as simply pixel x pixel dimensions. In order for them to scale we'd need to start treating them like print graphics where you have a specific physical size and assign as much pixel depth as you need (or can get away with). Problem being that suddenly web pages would probably need to at least double in bytes because of this. So sorry 56k users. :/

[intlplby]

i'd love a higher resolution since i think a lot of fonts are too big anyways and i wish i could make them smaller in order to get more real estate on my 12 in pbook.....

i guess i have the kind of eyesight that prefers smaller text......i know that some people always switch the resolution to lower after i finish using a machine....

This is a subject that has always facinated me about Apple products - but this seems to me at least to be a larger change than upgrading just the PowerBook screens. Wouldn't the entire line of their displays also be bumped to higher than 100ppi also? Making the assumption on my part that the initial change would be for the benefit of professionals, I can't imagine the HD would only apply to portables and not the huge number of desktop systems that design, production and advertising houses use. I would think a bump in res would blanket across most, if not all, of Apple's products. My own feeling is a change in res would be a huge event to Apple, one that wouldn't find it's way into just a single model of PowerBook. And if someone knows: is there a more concrete reason behind Apple's 100ppi policy as it relates to print and design? Does that size allow for better preview of final copy?

BTW, my roomate's 15.4" Compaq runs at 1680x1050, and look great. The Window's UI conforms well, and the text size is fine for reading, though I find my head wanders a bit close to the screen after a while. What's nice is that in Photoshop, Illustrator, etc, the palletes get out of the way and give more screen space to the work. Those vectored lines and fonts are mighty crisp too.

[tobes]

I've just ordered a 15" with all the extra options, so I freaked when I saw this: my wife uses one of the big Sonys, and the display is awesome. However, the display is also very thick, nearly 3x that of the powerbook. My guess is that Apple would have real difficulty fitting that display into the current form factor, and that's why they dropped the idea. After all, why introduce a new case size just as the product's coming to end of life?

Fwiw, I think Apple are covering their butts here: if they can't get the G5 ready for a MWSF launch (which I doubt they will) then they have the option of going HD to keep the market going. It will also allow them to beta-test all the new display bugs on an existing platform, and get rid of the inevitable white spots and keyboard marks in that revision.

Then they can launch a G5 with no display faults, which will be nice. G5 Rev A users can just worry about the knackered hinges, electric shocks, unworkable battery life, jets of boiling liquid coolant flying out, scalded laps, etc etc etc

Then they can launch a G5 with no display faults, which will be nice. G5 Rev A users can just worry about the knackered hinges, electric shocks, unworkable battery life, jets of boiling liquid coolant flying out, scalded laps, etc etc etc

RFLMAO.

Wouldn't you think they would attempt to try a higher res display in a $999 Cinema Display than a $3000 Powerbook first? They may be entirely different display technologies, I don't know. I just saw the "WWDC 2004 Graphics and Media State of the Union" presentation in which the newer Quartz features were mentioned, and I believe it was mentioned that a "DirectX 9 capable card" was required for full compliance, the ATI 9800XT specifically was mentioned. The current 17" only has a 9700. Possible that Tiger's release will coincide with, at the very least, a Powerbook with newer cards to utilize Quartz?

And something that occured to me: is there any chance the newer 17's in fact do have the 1920x1200 capablility - but is locked lower in Panther, only to be realized in Tiger?

And don't fret too much tobes, there are people who've dropped $2999 on 30" Cinemas who are locked into 100ppi that may have to watch as higher-res displays roll out too.

[Dave Hagan]

The Sony display is thicker, which in turn, means a brighter bulb for a backlight. Apple needs to fire correctly on all cylinders here, and don't think for a moment that they aren't trying. A ton of R&D goes into these things. Laptops with the features we want are not easy to engineer. I believe we are close. I think that PowerBook G5s are indeed done, but Apple is waiting for the appropriate amount of a specific version of the IBM 970 chip to launch. I think this accounts for the mixup in the 17" PowerBook's literature. I'm more convinced than ever that the latest round of speed-bumped PowerBook G4s are stop-gaps to WWDC.

[Gargoyle]

Maybe this is why the brushed metal is disappearing from Tiger. All the display elements are changing from bitmapped images to vectors.